Anybody know when the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Cape Wind Associates’ Nantucket Sound wind park is due out? This would appear to be the month, but the Corps is not offering any guarantees.

So was Chuck Kleekamp of Clean Power Now (which supports the project) going out on a limb when he agreed to, as the flyer from the Yarmouth Senior Center puts it, “review the Report and discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the proposal for Cape Cod and the Islands.”?

We’ll see. Meanwhile, make your reservation by calling 508-394-7606.

Boundary issues

Rock. Paper. Scissors.

In this case, drying rocks, the low-lying natural features that quite literally popped up into the debate about the wind farm this year; the paper on which the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board gave conditional approval for a transmission line from the proposed facility in Nantucket Sound to the power grid; and the scissors that state Sen. Rob O’Leary took to the EFSB’s decision.

The Cape and Islands senator has asked that final approval be delayed because there is “a very real possibility that the responsibility and involvement of the state could increase exponentially based on the outcome of the boundary line question,” he wrote in a letter to the EFSB.

“Drying rocks” are those natural features exposed at mean low water that sit within three nautical miles of land. Cape Wind has already said neither of the rocks under consideration for extending the boundaries of the state’s waters would put an end to the wind farm, and that a handful of towers could be relocated within the Sound.

Dillard dishes Kennedy

“Wind farms are beautiful,” Pulitzer Prize-winning nature essayist Annie Dillard wrote in a letter published in the Boston Globe, adding a delicious twist to the debate. Noting that “one powerful Kennedy” (that would be Jack) backed the land-taking associated with the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore when many others opposed it, Dillard, writing from South Wellfleet, charged that “Sen. Edward Kennedy surprises us by yielding to his friends’ fears instead of supporting what is right and good, as the seashore’s takings were both right and good.”

Then, in a final twist, she added, “I’m old, too. But I know a good thing when I see one.” Mercy!

Update from Arklow

GE Energy has put off the official inauguration of its seven-tower wind farm in Arklow Bay 90 miles south of Dublin, Ireland, until the spring.

“We understand the weather can be quite unpredictable in late October and decided that taking people out to the site in a boat was important to us,” Mary McCann, director of global marketing communications and public relations for wind energy for the company, wrote in an e-mail. “It looks like we will do it in May 2005.”

The site less than eight miles off the Arklow shore is permitted for 200 towers, but the rights to develop the remaining capacity are owned by Airtricity, an Irish company. The turbine technology used there is similar to that which would be employed in Nantucket Sound.

McCann wrote that GE Energy would have no comment on the dismantling of the Horns Rev wind park off Denmark for repairs.

Financing community wind

The Environmental Law and Policy Center has published the Community Wind Financing Handbook, which explains the options for structuring and financing community-based wind power projects. The handbook is posted on the Center’s Web sites at www.elpc.org , www.repowermidwest.org, and www.farmenergy.org .